Catholics learn more about John the Baptist:
1:8 He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light. It is important to remind ourselves of John the Baptist’s connection with The Prophet Elijah, which is explained by Jesus in Matthew 11:14, “And, if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”
That teaching was predicted by the Prophet Malachi 4:5, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of The LORD.”
Luke 1:17 is also clear about who John the Baptist is and what he would do: “He would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.”
1:9 The Word was the true light that enlightens all men; and He was coming into the world. “The Word of God” is the “light” that lets us see where we are in the vast complexity of The Creation Program. It also lets us see how obedient we are to He Who took Perfect Human Form in Mary’s Sacred Womb, through which He “came into the world”. To fulfill hundreds of Prophecies that had been downloaded to God’s earlier Prophets, He would be born of a Virgin of the House of David (Isaiah 7:14) in the tiny village of Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)
1:10 He was in the world that had its being through Him, and the world did not know Him. Those overcome with obsessions about worldly things and feelings could not “know” that The Word of God in Human Form could be greater than their beliefs and desires that served themselves. The Word of God was “Downloaded” so that all “might” walk to God on the “straight and narrow path” to Jesus.
1:11 He came to His own domain and His own people did not accept Him. Only His most blessed people would be in the “Catholic Domain” that Jesus gave His life to leave on earth by Speaking His Church-Creating Word to His First Catholic Pope, to which all Catholics continually refer: “And I say unto you: ‘Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.’”
1:12 But to all who did accept Him, He gave power to become children of God, to all who believe in the name of Him
A Simple Fact: To be a “child of God”, our human DNA must be “Upgraded”! In that “light”, Catholics are now able to understand: “There are “Seven DNA Upgrades” provided by The Seven Sacraments from His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: Baptism, Confession/Absolution, Catholic Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Healing, and Holy Orders.
A Catholic Fact: In every generation, God’s “DNA Upgrades” take the most perfect human form in mothers whose sons and daughters become Catholic priests and religious.
It is God’s Blessing that lets Catholics understand that our priests and religious are Ordained with God’s Power to provide Catholic Sacraments to those blessed to receive them. The “DNA Upgrades” they provide are among “the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” that let those blessed with them become “children of God”.
Review the Facts: “Children of God” can only be those who “upgrade their DNA” by obeying “Words of God”. His Prophets became “Children of God” and so did all whom they led to “Follow” God.
In the tens of thousands of years before Melchizedek showed himself to Abraham in Jerusalem, Words of God were passed on with oral traditions. At the proper time, God used Melchizedek to show people how to write and read so that His Words would be more permanently available. This free book, with lots of pictures and Bible Quotes about Melchizedek, lets Catholics see a new appreciation of Melchizedek: https://catholicfundamentalism.com/book/catholics-make-simple-sense-out-of-history-by-seeing-melchizedek-at-work/
Catholics realize that God’s “DNA Upgrades” were given to Mary, The Mother of Jesus, and to Elizabeth, The Mother of John the Baptist. This “Prologue” gives us the understanding we need to “Upgrade our DNA” and literally become “Children of God.” Catholics know that our beloved Saints, priests, and religious have had remarkably profound “DNA Upgrades”. May all be blessed to be gratefully led and inspired by them to be, and remain, “Children of God” in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Catholics look at a crude portrayal of a DNA molecule, and realize that the “Catholic DNA Upgrade” may need nothing more than a few electrons in a few atoms being changed from – (minus) to + (plus) by receiving The Catholic Sacraments.
A single DNA molecule contains about six billion atoms. Unlike us, Jesus is:
1:13 who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself.
The Word of God took Human Form to provide “the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” to all who would become “children of God” by downloading “The DNA Upgrades” that come from “Being Catholic!” and receiving The Catholic Sacraments.
1:14 The Word (of God!) was made flesh; He lived among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that is His as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
That “glory” began to be made evident by His Fulfillment of Prophecies that predicted the time and place of His Coming and what He would do in His days on earth.
1:15 John the Baptist appears as God’s witness when He proclaims: ‘This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me ranks before me because he existed before me’.
John, the last of God’s Prophets before Jesus, affirmed His Messianic Being by how he began The Prologue by saying: “The Word was with God and The Word was God”.
1:16 Indeed, from His fullness we have, all of us, received – yes, grace in return for grace,
We are being told that our “grace” is “returned” in proportion to the degree we let our “DNA Upgrades” make us more obedient to Jesus and to Catholic Teaching that we download within us. In Heaven, each of us is like a planet in the solar system that symbolizes differences in distance from God! We may picture God’s Holiest People as having “The DNA Upgrades” that let them be closer to His Light, forever in Heaven, as the planet Mercury is to the sun.
Or, it may be that those closest to God are like those souls on distant Pluto, shining The Glory of God into the distant darkness.
Or, it may be that those closest to God are in both places and everywhere they want to be in between!
St. Faustina helps us see how we Catholics are blessed to “receive” the life-giving food that is The Body and Blood of Christ by The Miracle of Transubstantiation every time we “receive” The Holy Food that God’s Grace and Mercy have provided at every Catholic Mass since The Last Supper.
“The Diary of St. Faustina, (#1124 from May 1, 1937), is a great blessing that makes us more worthy of Catholic Communion: “Today I felt the nearness of my Mother – my Heavenly Mother. Although before every Holy Communion I earnestly ask my Heavenly Mother to help me prepare my soul for the coming of Her Son, and I clearly feel Her protection over me. I entreat Her to be so gracious as to enkindle in me the fire of God’s love, such as burned in Her own pure heart at the time of the Incarnation of The Word of God.” That leads us to the next verse from The Prologue!
1:17 since, though the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
Catholics read that and see how blessed we are to realize that “Grace and Truth” are more important than “the Law”! “Grace and Truth” let us receive His Body and Blood that are “grace and truth” by the Miracle of Transubstantiation in every Catholic Communion since The Last Supper.
That Holy Food lets us keep our “DNA Upgraded” every time we obey The Call to Catholic Communion. It is so important that Jesus Christ Himself repeated 12 times in the last half of John 6, and two more times at The Last Supper: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.”
Only Catholic priests are Ordained as living links in the Catholic chain who connect with Jesus to preside over The Miracle of Transustantiation. Only Catholics are blessed to see that God is so real that we receive the actual Body and Blood of Christ, which lets us actually become “Children of God”.
1:18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, Who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known. Catholics are blessed to have seen more of what is in “The Prologue” than any other people on earth! Seeing some of what is in “The Prologue” for ourselves, and seeing how those “Holy Words” become The Body and Blood of Jesus lets us“Be As Catholic As We Can” and gives us the eternal life that is the joy of being a “child of God”.
We have gotten through The Prologue! We have begun to understand why it is so important to us and to our immortal souls to: “Be as Catholic as we can!”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “May all be blessed to understand, / And be as Catholic as we can.”
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